


black snow

by chaotichimbo



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Adult Content, Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Child Abandonment, Deviates From Canon, Earth Kingdom (Avatar), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Fights, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Minor Violence, Mutual Pining, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Recovery, Waterbending & Waterbenders, Zuko (Avatar) is Bad at Feelings, Zuko (Avatar) is an Idiot, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:07:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26396896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaotichimbo/pseuds/chaotichimbo
Summary: Koh doesn’t know who she is or who she’s supposed to be. She’s just got blood on her hands and she’s trying to wash it off with flames.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Water Tribe & Zuko (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar) & Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 2





	1. prologue

Re’s little sister left. 

The whole village noticed the day she disappeared. Re strode into the dying market, flipping a silver coin with his chin held high, the silent shadow that normally followed his every step gone. They didn’t know her name. 

Everyone talked about how odd they thought she was. About her hair. About the glint in her eyes. About the day she and her elder brother arrived and about the strange noises that came from their home in the middle of the night. About the way Re acted like she was never even there in the first place. 

They were different, those two. They stuck out, with their dark skin and their dull blue eyes, hazy like a storm cloud. The little family arrived one day, took occupation in an old abandoned barn. Re would linger around town, tossing winks at young girls and then sharing hearty laughs with their fathers. He carried a sword on his hip and drank ale in the tavern. But the sister, they only saw her once a week, when the sun was in the middle of the sky and Re let her indulge in the fresh fruit at the stands. 

Once a week, until today. 

People watched as the young man dragged his feet along the dirt, from stand to stand, rumors on their lips. One of the village men was feeling brave, eyes straying away from the sharpened sword. When Re was letting his eyes graze over the plump red apples, he approached, whispering the one question bred from curiosity but laced in concern. _“What happened to your sister?_

Re, with a heavy sigh and a locked jaw, responded to the man in an easy voice. “Koh will be back.”


	2. chapter one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which roads cross

Koh thought about her namesake a lot in moments like this. When the flesh under her eye was throbbing and the blood in her mouth dribbled down her chin, dripping onto her shoes. He was precise. He was composed. He was ruthless. _He was the Face Stealer._

 _I am the Face Stealer,_ Koh told herself, knowing it was the furthest thing from the truth. Whereas Koh the Face Stealer was precise and composed and ruthless, Koh the human girl was sloppy, enraged, and just short of ruthless. A little too hesitant. Hesitant enough to get her in trouble. Hesitant enough to result in her drinking her own blood.

The pebbles along her path, though, didn’t stand a chance against her vengeful feet. Her big toe slammed into them, launching them into the air and far enough away that Koh couldn’t see where they landed. She imagined the faces of the Earth Kingdom soldiers on the pebbles, screaming for mercy while they tumbled down the hill. There was no mercy from Koh. Merciless Koh. Divine Koh. Ruthless Koh. 

In her head, Koh became her brother, examining the way she threw herself at and danced in between stray Earth Kingdom soldiers with corruption in their bellies. Watching with narrow eyes and crossed arms and correcting her every move in his bland, monotonous voice. _You were too slow to attack. You let that one out of your sight. What do you do when it’s one against four? C’mon, Koh, we’ve been over this one. Sloppy form. Sloppy hit. Sloppy dodge. Sloppy. Sloppy. Sloppy._

Koh shook her head. She knew she was sloppy. She always was. At least she won. She always did. 

Still, her injuries were pulsing. Growing. Mutating. She was grateful it was just rock. She couldn’t imagine being hit like this with fire right now. The thought of it made her scar warm under her clothes. 

_Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy._

On to the next town.

~

He didn’t know what hunger felt like.

He thought he did. When he would go too long in training and the pits of his stomach would gnaw at him, when his ship had not docked for a few weeks at a time and the only thing left was slop, he thought he knew hunger. But that was nothing compared to the hunger he knew now. This was an all-consuming hunger. The emptiness in his stomach had spread throughout his limps and he was weak. Dizzy and lips cracking. He needed something. He needed anything. 

Zuko never realized how brutal the sun could be. It beat down him, heating up the fabric on his back and burning the exposed skin the shadows of his hat couldn't cover. The land of the Earth Kingdom was dry, stretching on for miles with nothing but crumbling dirt and broken-down homes. He couldn’t remember what the air of his home felt like on his skin, but he knew it wasn’t like this. Dry and dirty, every breath filled with dust that clouded up his lungs. Every other exhale was a cough, a useless attempt to get the earth out of his throat. The slow choking was the only thing that could get his mind off the hunger. It wasn’t like fire. It was drier than that. 

And even though he was evaporating from the inside out, his uncle sat next to him with a heft laugh echoing in his broad shoulders. His uncle was always like this, grin from cheek to cheek with a certain, cheery glint in his eye, even with a a small bowl with a few loose coins he had begged for. He was something else, Zuko thought. Something he wouldn't ever understand. "Spare change for weary travelers?" he asked a figure passing by, innocent grin almost blinding. 

His golden eyes were cast down on the ground, watching the shadow of the person who halted in front of them. Zuko couldn't bare to look them in the eye. To beg from someone he should be commanding. And though his gaze was harsh on the ground, he could feel their looming stare. It was heavy on his scar. He could always tell when people were staring at his scar. Though, he wasn't quiet sure what it meant anymore. His scar meant something different in the Earth Kingdom than it did in the Fire Nation. 

But they said simply, in a voice that sounded rough for a girl, "I don't have much, but it looks like you have less. Here." A coin flipped in the air and landed in the center of Iroh's bowl. "Good luck, weary travelers." 

Her voice sounded condescending, dripping in something venomous. Like she was pleased to watch them beg. Zuko tightened his hands into fists. He hated the way this made him feel. How angry every person who passed him by made him. But nothing made him as furious as the man with his swords whacking the the bottoms of his uncle's feet, making him dance for a gold coin. The rage washed over his body like rain, and for the first time, he looked into the man's eyes and memorized them. Memorized the details of his face and the way his skin wrinkled when he laughed at Iroh. He would get his vengence.

~

The stream water felt nice against Koh’s skin, refreshing and cool. She could feel the water seep in between the cracks in her feet and the hairs on her leg. Her blood floated down the clear stream, fading from a dark red to a strawberry pink until it returned to the crystal clear it was before Koh stuck her limbs in it. The water cleansed her, made her feel free of the shock and the rage that had made her body rigid.

She liked the cold water. Hot springs always made her sweat and feel out of breath. But the chill of ice water against her skin made her feel refreshed, made her feel at home. Koh wished it was salt water, craved the taste against her lips. The ocean wouldn’t leave her mind. 

Koh heard stories, words passed and watered down from villagers who heard something from someone from a western village about what happened at the Northern Water Tribe. Koh could feel it, too. When it happened, she didn’t know what the burning in her chest was. It was a heavy grief, one that felt so familiar but still so distant. The moment that general slayed the moon spirit, it hit Koh in the gut. The relief she felt when the spirit was restored was like a cool flood for the rage the flooded her veins. She tried to imagine what it was like to watch the ocean spirit take vengeance on Fire Nation generals who knew little beyond their own greed. 

Flames of rage licked up her throat, ready to pour out of her throat. Her brother had failed at many things, but he never failed to instill a deep-seeded hatred for the Fire Nation in Koh. A nation of greed and ignorance and hate that has done nothing but spread and uproot families and villages and entire cultures. Koh couldn’t forget it, not when Re had spent almost every day of her life reminding her exactly what they did to her family. 

She had been alone for a while now. A few weeks, maybe, but Koh wasn’t very good at counting the days. She left when the moon was high in the sky, full and bright and watching over her. When no one could hurt her.

With hatred like acid in her throat, Koh thought she should make her way back into town. She would get her vengeance.

~

Whereas Zuko struggled in his bending, he excelled in combat. With his dual broadswords, with his fists, with his rage. He was stronger in a fight, always more skilled than his opponent. He could move swiftly and dangerously. And even with a heavy mask on his face, he had a power he could taste.

Being alone felt strange to him. He tried to think of a moment, just one single second, that he ever had to himself. Without the gentle touch of his mother’s hand on his shoulder. Without the sharp and ringing laughter of his sister echoing in his ear. Without a pair of eyes on him. He was always watched. Patrolled. Monitored. Dust was his first taste of freedom.

His eyes followed the man. The man with the broadswords that he hardly knew how to use. Zuko's breaths were quite, no louder than the gentle breeze against the wooden homes. And then, in a quick and fluid movement, he kicked over a barrel and disappeared, listening for the sound of the metal unsheathing. "Who's there?" the man called into the darkness, oblivious to the fact that Zuko was already on his other side and his hands about to disarm him. 

The man went down easily. All it took was a a quick twist of the wrist and a heavy shove, and the swords were in Zuko's hands before they had even clattered still on the ground. He knew the way his mask looked in the night, knew how it struck fear in people's hearts. A masked assailant was a far more formidable foe than a recognizable face with a heavy scar. And with the dual broadswords in his hands, the man was scurrying away before Zuko had to make another move. 

The banished prince stood there for a second, feeling the pride beat in his chest at the idea of humiliating the man who made his uncle dance like a monkey for his dinner. Who was humiliated now? Who was weak now? Who knew a shame that was so deep in their chest that no amount of redemption would eradicate it? 

But the thumping pride didn't last long enough to leave Zuko satisfied. Because the second he sheathed the swords, there was a cold and sharp metal against his throat. Now the beating in his chest was something different. A beating that leapt to his throat where the blade dared to cut into his skin. A red shame crept up his cheeks. How had he let someone watch? Someone sneak up on him? Who could be attacking him? Did they knew who he was? _Please don't be Azula, please don't be Azula._ "Who are you?" he asked, careful to be still against the stranger's grip. 

"Prince Zuko," they said, and his sweat went cold at the rough voice. The girl who looked at his scar and tossed a coin into their dinner fund. "Did you think you could be safe here? In enemy territory?" 

"What do you want?" he asked, ashamed someone he had never even seen had gotten the upper-hand. He was tired of being beaten by girls. 

She took a while to respond. For a moment it was just her hand tight on his shoulder and shaking hand pressing the small dagger to his throat and the sound of their quick breaths. "Are you still searching for the Avatar?" she whispered into his ear, and he felt the hairs on his arms rise. 

Zuko didn't know how to answer. So he didn't. She continued. "I want to follow you," she said. "I want to accompany you on your journey to capture the Avatar." 

There were too many questions running around in his head by the first one that fell through his lips was, "Why?" 

She pressed her dagger against his throat just a little harder. "That's my business." 

"And if I say no?" 

"You're not in a great position to refuse," she told him, voice strong and raspy, like the rocky dirty roads of the land. "And besides, there are a few wanted posters around town, around the continent. If I can't accompany you, I bet the reward money would be the next best thing." 

Zuko tried to think of where he went wrong. What misstep he took to get himself in this position. Whether he didn't pay close enough attention or whether it was some sort of celestial justice that was beyond his understanding. He let out a breath of defeat. "Fine," he said, and the cool metal on his throat was gone and the grip on him released. Zuko whipped around to see his attacker. 

And he didn't know what he was expecting, but it was _her._

There was something about her that was so familiar, and he wasn't sure if that was good or bad. Her thick, dark waves of hair that were cut sloppy and unevenly. Her dark skin that looked like it was glowing under the light of the moon. But the thing that struck him the most was her eyes, dark and grey and heavy like a storm that could kill him. A storm that would kill him without thinking twice about it. She grinned, and stuck out her hand. "I'm Koh," she said, sounding sweeter than before, "and I look forward to traveling with you, Prince Zuko."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this is how chapters are gunna be. short and snippy !!!! i hope to get some traction with this ily

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time ever posting on ao3 (i was always a ff.net type of kid but i guess this is character development). so i hope u guys enjoy???? i hope at least one person reads this lmao


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